Baseball caps, backpacks and an unlimited supply of flannel shirts: How middle-aged Silicon Valley CEOs compete with their twenty-something rivals

In the ruthless, fast-paced battleground of Silicon Valley, keeping an edge on your business rivals is vital - in particular if the competition is increasingly half your age.

In a candid interview this week, one tech CEO admitted that he probably wouldn't be in his job if he had not shaved his grey hair and swopped brogues for sneakers to blend in.

A closer look at some middle-aged tech moguls in California reveals several key trends to their work wardrobe.

Fashion forward: 44-year-old Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, keeps fresh with a baseball cap, backpack, loose checked shirt and Ray-Bans combo while heading to a hire-powered tech conference last year

The youth 'uniform' requires an apparently unlimited variety of checked, flannel shirts; scruffy jeans or combat trousers (the more pockets the better) and T-shirts from skate and surf brands - or with an ironic slogan. Sneakers are a must and should be Converse baseball boots preferably.

The Silicon Valley look is completed with a backpack or satchel, baseball cap with huge brand label slapped on the front and a pair of this season's sunglasses.

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Randy Adams, 60, broke rank this week and admitted he believes he had been turned down for job after job in youth-obsessed Silicon Valley because he looked too old.

Finally, before heading into his next interview, he shaved off his grey hair and traded in his loafers for a pair of Converse. He is now chairman of the company that hired him in January 2012, mobile conference-call service Socialdial.

Adams supplemented his makeover by trading in his button-downs for T-shirts, making sure he owns the latest gadgets and getting an eyelid lift.

In the shade: Google co-founder Sergey Brin, 39, stays ahead of the game in trendy sunglasses by wearing the Project Glass prototypes